The Great Commission and Evangelization
As taught in the Catholic tradition
The essential mission of the Church to proclaim the Gospel to all nations.
Within the Catholic tradition, the question of mission and evangelization is not an optional "add-on" to the life of the Church, but the very reason for her existence. The central question this subtopic answers is: Why does the Church exist, and what is her fundamental identity in relation to the world? The answer, as articulated by the Second Vatican Council and subsequent papal teaching, is that "the pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature" (Ad Gentes, 2). This mission is not a human project or a strategy for institutional expansion; it is an outflow of the Missio Dei—the mission of God Himself. The Church does not "have" a mission; the mission (the sending of the Son by the Father and the sending of the Holy Spirit by the Father and the Son) "has" a Church as its visible instrument in time.
By the end of this lesson
- **Identify** the Trinitarian origins of mission (*Missio Dei*) and explain how the Church’s missionary nature is derived from the sending of the Son and the Holy Spirit.
- **Distinguish** between the "Mission *Ad Gentes*" (to those who do not know Christ), the "New Evangelization" (to the baptized who have lost the faith), and ordinary pastoral care.
- **Explain** the relationship between "proclamation" and "witness," showing why the verbal message of the Gospel must be accompanied by the "sacrament of the life" of the believer.
- **Articulate** the significance of the "Kerygma" (the core Gospel message) as the essential first step in the process of evangelization, as emphasized by modern teachers like Fr. John Riccardo.
- **Trace** the development of missionary theology from the early Church’s apostolic witness to the modern "New Evangelization" articulated by St. John Paul II.
- **Defend** the necessity of the Church and the Sacraments (specifically Baptism) in the fulfillment of the Great Commission, against modern theories of religious indifferentism.
- **Apply** the concept of "spiritual multiplication" and "relational ministry" to the role of the laity in evangelizing the secular spheres of family, work, and culture.
- **Compare** the Catholic understanding of "integral evangelization" (which includes social justice and human promotion) with narrower models that focus exclusively on individual soul-saving.
Scripture
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